Alwaght- The US President Joe Biden is willing to consider a military actions against Iran should the talks to revive the US-scrapped deal fail, said the American Special Envoy to Iran Robert Malley.
In an interview with Foreign Policy’s podcast Playlist broadcasted on Wednesday, Malley said Biden is prepared for a military option if nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran and others fail to reach an agreement.
Malley said that Washington was exerting unprecedented pressure on Iran to accept the terms of the nuclear deal.
“First, I think the president has made this clear, our priority is diplomacy. It’s the proven way, the best way. It’s the most sustainable way to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. And, that still remains our preference,” he said, despite the fact that the Islamic Republic has repeatedly rejected US allegations that it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb.
“So we’ve now [pause], we’re in a very different situation today, where we’re working the next step with the UK, with France, with Germany, with so many countries around the world. Look at the vote at the IAEA Board of Governors. There is a vast majority of countries today, and not just Western countries, that understand that the pressure has to be put on Iran to stop its nuclear advances,” Malley said.
The US top Iran official claimed that in August the two sides had almost reached an agreement on the JCPOA deal, but Tehran wanted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to stop its inspections, and so, they disagreed. Tehran, however, disputed this, saying it had complied with the deal even beyond its obligations, since the 2015 signing of the JCPOA, and the IAEA had witnessed Tehran's commitment to the terms of the deal at least 15 times. Iran turned off several of IAEA’s cameras which were functioning outside the Safeguards Agreement since early June after the IAEA Board of Governors passed a resolution that accused the country of not cooperating with the UN body.
American President Donald Trump scrapped the 2015 deal in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran as part of what the White House said “maximum pressure” campaign to bring Tehran on its knees.
Things did not go as the Americans hoped, however. They expected the Iranian economy to collapse but the resourceful Tehran managed the situation in a way that steered clear of an economic free fall, though the country undeniably experienced hardship in its oil sales.
So far seven round of talks to restore the deal were held, with each time Tehran blaming the failure on the “Washington excesses.”
The Americans want the Iranians to include Iranian missile program and regional influence in the negotiations, but Tehran wants them purely nuclear.
